Born in Brooklyn, NY; John was the second oldest in a traditional Italian-American family. Hard work, discipline and Sunday pasta were the traditions of the day. After his forty-year old father suffered a serious heart attack, the family followed doctor’s advice and moved to the warmer climate of South Florida.

New York’s concrete landscape changed overnight into the sandy beaches and warm tropical waters of Fort Lauderdale. The only thing John still longed for were people who shared and understood his dream of becoming actor. It would take some time, but they would eventually appear in the form of his college mentor, Richard Fallon at Florida State University and then later, Burt Reynolds and his dear friends, Charles Nelson Reilly and Dom Deluise. Their belief in him gave him all the confidence he needed to head to California and to pursue his dreams.

After a few years of struggling, trying to get someone to believe in him, John was discovered while bartending by Sam Weisbord, the President of the William Morris Agency. A few weeks later, John was signed as a client and sent on auditions. A few months later, John had the good fortune of being hired as one of the leads of an ABC/Disney series called Wildside. That began a long and steady career on television. Six television series and multiple recurring and guest star appearances later, John now works with young people around the country in helping them reach for the goals they dare to imagine.

Teaching Philosophy

Inspired by his teacher, the late-great Charles Nelson Reilly, John strives to deliver Charles’ philosophy to new generations of young actors. In essence, by first acknowledging and then celebrating the strengths and weaknesses within all of us, Charles taught actors to first understand who they are before trying to become someone else. Where we are great, where we are fragile; he made us understand the importance of all our emotional make-up and how it could infuse real life energy into all our characters.

Although great actors make it seem simple, delivering dynamic performances requires the courage to reach within oneself to find those parts of us that are the character. Our parents and society have us practice social graces, but within the four walls of a character is no place to be polite. The character must know who they are and what they want, then risk everything in order to get it!